Sunday, July 09, 2017

3 For
we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various
passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating
one another. 4 But
when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because
of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy,
through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 16:24-28

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If
any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their
cross and follow me. 25 For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find
it. 26 For what will it profit them if they gain
the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for
their life?

27 “For the Son of Man is to come
with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for
what has been done. 28 Truly I tell you, there are
some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man
coming in his kingdom.”

Over twenty years ago a friend shared with me a series of
books that has stuck with me over the years.
The books were "The Hero Within" and "Awakening the
Heroes Within" by Carol Pearson.
They struck me because I am one who believes that the Christian life is
one of a journey --- a journey to draw closer to God (as found in Jesus) and a
journey for us to draw closer to each other.
Pearson invited her readers to join her on a journey of self-awareness
and understanding believing that understanding what makes us tick will help us
as we relate to God and others.

In "Awakening The Heroes" Pearson wrote:

“Each journey is unique, and each
seeker charts a new path. But it is infinitely easier to do so having at least
some knowledge about the experiences of those who have gone before. When we
learn about the many different heroic paths available to us, we understand that
there is room for all of us to be heroic in our own unique ways.”

The paths that she helped us to understand were what she
called archetypal personalities. And she
defined six primary archetypes and six additional ones. I found her analysis enlightening.

Maybe it was the revival of the Marvel Super-Hero franchise
--- or maybe it was because Matt is such a big Richard Rohr fan, and my hunch
it was a combination of the two of them.
But earlier this year, Matt suggested we do a series based on a couple
of books that he had found, one by his beloved Rohr.

For the last few years there has been a real revival not in
what Pearson defined as archetypes --- but in another ancient personality typing
system known as the Enneagram --- which Rohr writes about.

In Greek Ennea means nine and gram means point.

The word refers to a circle
inscribed by nine points which is used as a symbol to arrange and depict nine
personality styles.

In its current formulations, the
Enneagram brings together insights of perennial wisdom and findings of modern
psychology.

To avoid a long story --- let me just say that the roots of
the Enneagram are disputed.

According to the Enneagram Institute:

The Enneagram of Personality Types
is a modern synthesis of a number of ancient wisdom traditions, but the person
who originally put the system together was Oscar Ichazo. Ichazo was born in
Bolivia and raised there and in Peru, but as a young man, moved to Buenos
Aires, Argentina to learn from a school of inner work he had encountered.
Thereafter, he journeyed in Asia gathering other knowledge before returning to
South America to begin putting together a systematic approach to all he had
learned.

But the truth is: where this concept came from isn't that
important.

What is important is what the Enneagram has to offer you and
me.

In the introduction to the "The Road Back To You",
Ian Cron (an Episcopal priest) shares a story of his encounter with Brother
Dave, a seventy year old Benedictine monk and Spiritual director (again --- now
you understand why Matt was so interested in this book).

Brother Dave explained the Enneagram by saying:

"It is full of wisdom for
people who want to get out of their own way and become who they were created to
be.

It has to do with
self-knowledge. Most folks assume they
understand who they are when they don't

They don't question the lens
through which they see the world --- where it came from, how it's shaped their
lives, or even if the vision of reality it gives them is distorted or
true. Even more troubling, most people aren't
aware of how things that helped them survive as kids are now holding them back
as adults. They're asleep.

What we don't know about ourselves
can and will hurt us, not to mention others,

As long as we stay in the dark
about how we see the world and the wounds and beliefs that have shaped who we
are, we're prisoners of our history.
We'll continue going through life on autopilot doing things that hurt
and confuse ourselves and everyone around us.
Eventually we become so accustomed to making the same mistakes over and
over in our lives that they lull us to sleep.
We need to wake up."

It was John Calvin who said: "without knowledge of self
there is no knowledge of God."

So for the next few weeks Matt and I are going to look at
this typology known as the Enneagram and the lives of people who exemplified
those typologies; so that it might help us achieve our full potential.

This morning, I want to spend some time on heroes ---
because the people we will point out are often seen as heroes.

What makes someone a hero?

We love our heroes.

We love to have somebody that we can look up to, somebody
who can guide us, somebody who can blaze a trail through the jungle that we
call life.

I want to take you back about 40 years ago --- during an
earlier crisis in the Mideast.

There was, at that time, a madman by the name of Ayatollah Khomeini
--- do you remember him?

Ayatollah Khomeini, at that time was leading a revolution in
Iran that led to the overthrow of the US puppet government lead by the
"Shah of Iran". He also seemed
to be threatening to take over the entire Mideast region.

Worse still, he seemed to relish in rubbing our noses in the
dirt, especially when his followers had taken the American Embassy hostage.

Ayatollah Khomeini had single handedly put the whole world
on edge as he seemed to be trying to export his brand of Muslim Fundamental
Revolution.

NO ONE was
strong enough to resist him.

Nobody seemed
to be able to stand up to him.

But then suddenly one man appeared.

A man who claimed to be deeply
religious and claimed that God had given him the mission of overthrowing the Ayatollah.

Everyone heralded him as a hero

his people

the rest of
the Mideast region

even the
United States government

He said that if his country would just follow him -- they
could be saved!

Do you remember this hero of ours?

His name was Saddam
Hussein.

By 1991 we branded this HERO the devil --- and we all know
the sad tale of American lives and innocent civilian lives lost in trying to
remove him from power.

We need to be careful of the heroes we choose.

There is a wonderful old Bonnie Tyler song called "I
Need A Hero" that seems to hit the nail on the head.

The words go:

Everyone's looking for a hero

Everyone's waiting for the big boys

Everyone's watching for a hot shot

Everyone's waiting for a big noise

I need a hero

I need a hero in the morning light

And he's got to be fast, and he's
got to be cool,

and he's got to be larger than
life.

What strikes me is that most of us really do feel like we
need a hero right now.

We want Wolverine (or John Wayne --- depending on your age)
to swagger into Indianapolis and stop the crime and violence

We want a Ronald Reagan or John F Kennedy to make us believe
in our country again.

We need a hero --- to come in and tell us what to do, or
better yet, to just get the dirty work done for us --- because isn't that what
a hero is supposed to do?

I grew up believing in heroes.

The heroes of my childhood were

James Bond

Clint
Eastwood

The Lone
Ranger

Zorro

We all have had heroes --- whether it was Superman, Rambo,
or Luke Skywalker

We all want a
hero

The Jewish people were also looking for a hero.

For them the hero had to fit a certain expectation --- and
they called that expected hero the Messiah.

Over the centuries, as the Jewish people were repeatedly
beaten up by every two bit country that had any military power their
expectations for a hero grew.

The prophets of the Hebrew Bible
are filled with stories of the longing of the people for this hero to come and
save them.

But the Jewish people --- like us --- did not get what they bargained
for.

Instead of a mythical Messiah ---
they got a Christ who came and spoke of peace and love and the empowerment of
each person.

He taught that the power of God does not work from the
outside --- but rather God works inside each of us.

"Greater
things than I have done (Jesus said) you will do." (John 14:12)

I chose these two passages of scripture because of what they
teach us

The passage from Titus (a book most of us never read or even
knew was there).

The author of Titus reminds us that the heroes that God
chooses are not supermen or women.

The heroes are you and me.

We may be foolish, disobedient, and subject to all kinds of
sin --- but when the spirit fills us --- God will use us to be heroes in this
world.

And of course the Matthew passage is where Jesus calls us to
be disciples and reminds us that being a disciple is not a waltz through a rose
garden but giving up our selves for God.

If we want to follow Jesus --- then
we must become a hero for Jesus

Yet we have to be careful --- our love of heroes is very
fickle.

We may love them today --- but tomorrow --- tomorrow we may
want to see them crucified because they do not do what we want them to do.

We can pretend all we want --- but the Christian church is
in deep trouble today.

We are losing our effectiveness to reach the people of this
day and age.

Some will argue that it is a problem of leadership

Bishops

District
Superintendents

and even our
Pastors

And that very well may be true

But the answer isn't found in this pulpit.

The answer is
found where YOU are sitting

It is easy to sit back and wait for a hero

It is easy to be told what to do, or better yet, to watch
somebody do it for you

But in the end --- it all boils down to you and me ---

what will the power of God be like
in our lives?

We can sit back and wait --- as we watch the world pass by.

Or we can take the power of the presence of Jesus and bring
light into this world.

It was Florence Nightingale who once said:

“I am of certain convinced that the
greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic
affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.”

There is only one hero we really need --- and that is the
hero that is in each of us.

The hero, transformed by the power
and love of Jesus.

For Jesus is the only hero that
isn't fickle and never lets us down.

One final comment: The
stories that you all have shared with me of your heroes have been amazing. It has been a joy to read them.

I wish that I had the time to share
each and every one.

Yes, they are stories of some of the great heroes of our
day:

Dr. Martin
Luther King

Mahatmas Gandhi

John Glenn

Stay at home
moms

But they were also filled with stories of:

Your children
and grand-children

And what would strike some of you the most --- is that some
of the heroes who were shared are sitting right here in this church this
morning.

There are people in this church who
already see the hero in you.

I do want to share one statement that one of you shared with
me:

I have always
believed in "The Power of One."This is the power we
all have.You
don't have to be rich.You don't have to be of any race or religion.You don't have to be a
mover or a shaker.You simply have to have the courage and love in your heart to make a
difference in someone's life.

Over the next few weeks --- as we go on this journey of
self-discovery.

As we look at and try to understand what makes us tick ---
may at the same time, we look in the mirror and see the hero within.

May God give us the wisdom, not to wait to be given the
answers to the problems of the world, but to find them written on our hearts in
God's indelible handwriting.

Let me close with Brother Dave's prayer:

May you
recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul.

May you realize that
you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects
you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.

May you have
respect for your individuality and difference.

May you realize
that the shape of your soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here,
that behind the facade of your life there is something beautiful and eternal
happening.

May you learn to
see your self with the same delight, pride, and expectation with which God see
you in every moment.